1000 Species!

I am thrilled that my species tally on iNat is now over 1,000 species!

I have been thinking of making a Journal post for a while, and having achieved the milestone of 1,000 species, thought this as good a starting point as any.

I've really enjoyed using iNaturalist for the past two years since starting in Jan 2020. Since then, I have made almost 3,500 observations covering the 1,000 species.

The 3,500 observations have mostly been made in my home region of South Africa's Western Cape province, with some made in the neighbouring countries as far north as Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and the Caprivi Strip in Namibia. Most have been made this year and last year, with some retrieved from my saved files of trips taken in previous years, such as in 2015.

The 1,000 species are broken down as per below:

• Birds - 221 species (Cape White-Eye, Egyptian Goose, Red-winged Starling, Hadedah Ibis and Southern Double-Collared Sunbird being most observed)
• Mammals - 51 species (Cape Fur Seal and Chacma Baboon most commonly observed)
• Reptiles - 16 species (Southern Rock Agama most observed)
• Amphibians - 5 species (Cape River Frog most observed)
• Fish - 10 species (Mozambique Tilapia most observed)
• Molluscs - 16 species (Cornu aspersum most observed)
• Insects - 134 species (Cape Honeybee most observed)
• Arachnids - 10 species (orbweavers most observed)
• Crustaceans - 11 species (Shore Crab Cyclograpsus punctatus, European Shorecrab Carcinus maenas, and the hermit crab Diogenes brevirostris most observed)
• Plants - 494 species (Zantedeschia aethiopica, Protea repens most observed)
• Fungi - 19 species (Port Jackson Gall Rust Uromycladium morrisii and Oak Mazegill Daedalea quercina most observed)
• Other - 1 species (Protea Witches Broom phytoplasma)

As can be seen here, I tend to gravitate towards more easily identifiable organisms (namely, birds, mammals, and plants). This is both due to my own natural bias and the fact that many arthropods cannot be identified to species level unless their body parts are dissected.

That said, I hope to make many more observations with the hopefully realised goal of 2,000 species! With the high biodiversity here in South Africa, this should be an achievable goal.

Publicado el 28 de diciembre de 2021 a las 05:00 PM por dinofelis